


Discipline and Cookies

by Lady_Stardust7



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 11:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12456644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Stardust7/pseuds/Lady_Stardust7
Summary: Rumple and Belle have always excelled at being parents - except in one particular area: discipline. When a prank goes wrong, Gideon learns how soft his parents really are.





	Discipline and Cookies

**Author's Note:**

> Ahh I have 2 fics that need updating but this one came out of my brain instead.
> 
> Enjoy!

This was unusual. Gideon _never_ got into trouble. He was always such a good and well-mannered kid. He never did anything naughty, and they’d certainly never been called into the school to discuss anything other than how exceptionally talented and bright he was. So why had they been summoned to Snow’s classroom after school with the instruction to have a strict word with her?

Mild panic and concern filled Rumple and Belle’s heads. Was he getting bullied? Had he fallen into a bad crowd? They wordlessly communicated their thoughts through their worried expressions, as they waited in silence outside her classroom. After what felt like an eternity, the door opened and Snow stood before them, gesturing for them to come inside.

They walked in together, quickly registering Gideon sitting alone at a table. His expression was solemn and he avoided the gaze of his parents. They each took a seat on the other side of Snow’s desk as she sat opposite them. She looked slightly uncomfortable herself, shifting in her seat as if she was reluctant to be calling Rumple and Belle in for a word. After a brief silence, Rumple asked what the problem was.

“Recently, Gideon has been experimenting with pranks in the classroom,” began Snow. “They started off harmless, making pens dance and such. He’s received a warning for it, regardless. There’s a place for magic and it’s not in the classroom around other students.

“In today’s class, we continued reading from _The Catcher in the Rye_ ,” she said, bringing out a copy from one of her desk drawers. She put it in front of the pair of them and opened it to a random page. “All was normal until we got up to this sentence here. “‘ _Thank you for the compliment,’ I said. ‘Gideon Gold’s my name_.’”

Rumple and Belle frowned in confusion.

“I… don’t understand?” said Belle, eventually. “Why does it have Gideon’s name in it?”

“Every reference to the main character in this book has been changed from ‘Holden’ to ‘Gideon’. And not only in this book. Gideon has charmed every book in the school to replace the main character’s name with his.”

Rumple and Belle turned to their guilty-looking son, who seemed to be trying to make himself look as small as possible.

“Is this true, Gideon?” asked Rumple. Gideon shrugged and looked down in shame.

“I was only meant to do it to Roderick’s book,” he said, meekly. “I thought he’d find it funny. I don’t know how it happened to every book in the school.”

Rumple was impressed. The level of _precision_ that must have taken… well, that was advanced, to say the least. He hadn’t taught him to do that. Gideon must have used his own initiative and learned the theory and practice of the trick himself. He’d always been proud of his son, but his ambition and potential was blossoming more and more by the day. He looked to Belle, who was still staring at the book with her hand over her mouth. _No, this was bad_. Gideon shouldn’t be practicing magic without supervision.

Belle was trying to stifle a laugh. Her son’s big personality had always been coated with a good sense of humour. The inspiration behind his prank must have been the fact that he was named after the character in _Her Handsome Hero_. As far as his mischievousness went, she was glad that his love of books had played a role in his creativity. She glanced towards Rumple, who was frowning slightly. _No, this was bad_. He shouldn’t be pulling pranks and disrupting lessons.

Snow continued pulling out more books to reel off more examples. The Harry Potter series were now titled with _Gideon Gold_ , and _Black Beauty_ was now _Gold Beauty._  Soon there were a dozen books on the desk, their son’s name staring at them in various fonts.

“As you can see, it’s caused a lot of disruption. The class didn’t take in any of the words because they were too busy sniggering at each mention of his name, meaning we’re now a lesson behind - and we were already behind schedule,” continued Snow. “I’ve had teachers coming in all day demanding to know why their textbooks have changed, not to mention how the book in my bag has been turned to _50 Shades of Gold_.”

Rumple looked to his lap and covered his face with his hands. What kind of parent would he look like if they’d caught him smirking at his son’s ingenuity? Beside him, Belle was trying to think of sad scenarios in her head to stop the smile playing at her lips.

“I’m very sorry for Gideon’s actions,” said Belle. “Thank you for letting us know. We’ll deal with him at home.”

Rumple waved his hand and a glow spread around all the books in the classroom, the covers of the books in front of them changing back to their original titles.

“They should be corrected now,” said Rumple. “It won’t happen again.”

They got to their feet and Gideon skulked towards them. Rumple and Belle shared a glance and sighed. They’d have to discipline him. Neither of them were good in that area, as, luckily, they’d never really had to tell him off. Gideon had just always been so _good_. They’d have to do this together.

The car journey was silent, and not a word was spoken on the long path towards the house. Once the door was shut behind them, Rumple threw the car keys on the cabinet and sighed, turning reluctantly towards the scene they’d have to play out. Belle had had her arms crossed and had looked a little lost for a whole five minutes, as if trying to figure out where to go from here. Gideon looked at them, expectantly, seeming to have more of an idea about what they should do than even they did.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Come on, Gideon, you’re better than this,” began Belle. “You can pull pranks without using magic and without it being during lessons.”

“We raised you better than this,” added Rumple, albeit a little uncertainly, as he racked his brains for lines his aunties had used on him when he was a child.

“What would have happened if your father hadn’t have been able to rectify it?”

Gideon looked at his shoes.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t _mean_ for it to get out of hand, honest. I won’t do it again.”

“Gideon, you shouldn’t be using magic at all,” said Rumple. “You aren’t trained. When you try and use magic without having control over it, god knows what could happen. You’ve seen the effect yourself - you tried to change one book but changed every book in the entire building. I don’t want to see this happen again.”

“Yes, dad,” said Gideon, quietly, nodding his head. “I’m sorry.”

Belle felt her heart melt at his big guilty eyes, and Rumple wanted nothing more than to pull his son in and give him a hug.

“We… need to be sure you won’t behave like this again. You’ll spend the rest of the evening in your bedroom, so you can reflect on the consequences of your actions,” instructed Rumple.

“And you’re grounded for the rest of the week,” added Belle, with a heavy heart. Gideon nodded again and went upstairs without uttering another sentence, hanging his head in shame. Belle and Rumple sighed once more, feeling guilty and hoping that they wouldn’t have to repeat this any time soon.

***

Gideon shut the door behind him and sat on his bed, his encounter with his parents playing over and over in his mind. He’d never been grounded before, they must be so disappointed in him. He sighed and reached into his bag, pulling out a book to try and distract himself. Five pages in, however, the repeated mention of his name filled him with more and more guilt, so he put it down and stared out the window.

There was a knock at his door, and he saw his mother’s head peek through the crack. She gave him a reassuring smile, closed the door behind her, then walked over and sat on the end of his bed. She held a pack of cookies and held them out for him to take one.

“I’m sorry we’ve had to be so strict, Gideon,” she began. “It’s just, you know how seriously your father takes magic. It isn’t something to be meddled with.”

“I know, mom,” replied Gideon, as he took a bite out of a cookie. “I won’t do it again.”

“As far as pranks go though, that was a good one,” she admitted, with a little smirk. “You’re such a creative boy. I can just imagine you, the hero in every book. Did everybody else find it funny?”

“Yeah. It was when everyone started laughing that I realised the spell went wrong. The more they laughed the more Snow got angry.”

Belle smiled and ruffled Gideon’s hair.

“At least nobody got hurt, and it all got sorted out. Do me a favour though, Gideon, and stick to more simple pranks next time? Leave magic out of it. There are other outlets. I already have enough trouble getting your father not to use it when it’s not necessary, and I don’t want to have to worry about you, too.”

“Yes, mom.”

“Good boy. I’d better go, I can hear your father walking around. You can keep the rest of the cookies in here, but I’m bringing up your dinner soon so don’t eat too many.”

She gave him another smile and left. Only a few moments later, the sound of Rumple pacing around the corridor vibrated through the air. When Gideon heard a knock at his bedroom door, he hid the cookies under his covers and looked innocent as his father strolled into his room. He, too, looked rather guilty and mimicked Belle’s actions from not ten minutes before, taking a seat next to Gideon on his bed.

“Here, I brought you a hot chocolate,” he said, passing a mug to Gideon, who accepted it with a thanks. “Look, Gideon, you didn’t put us in an easy position out there. I didn’t want to be so strict, really. It’s just that, well, you know how your mother doesn’t like magic.”

Gideon smiled behind his hot chocolate. His parents were so _soft_.

“I know, dad,” he replied. “I won’t use magic again, I promise.”

“Well, actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. That spell - I don’t know where you got it from but it requires a high level of precision, and I think your attempt shows a lot of potential. I think you could be really talented. I’ll have a talk with your mother first, but how would you feel about having lessons with me? I could teach you how to control it.”

Gideon was shocked. His parents had been called into school to discipline him for a prank gone wrong, and instead he was getting cookies, hot chocolate and magic lessons? His poor parents. They really didn’t know how to tell him off.

“Uh - yeah, that sounds great, dad,” he said.

“ _But_ , in return I expect you not to use magic without me present to supervise,” replied Rumple, a more firm tone to his voice. Gideon nodded eagerly, and Rumple also looked excited at the idea.

“Great. We could even work on projects together!” Rumple stood up and made his way back to the door. “And, Gideon, one last thing: we won’t have to tell you off for pranks if you don’t get caught.”

With a smile and a wink, his father left.

***

Downstairs, Rumple and Belle sat side-by-side on the sofa, feeling a positive glow from their interactions with Gideon.

“We’re good parents, aren’t we?” mused Rumple, putting an arm around Belle and feeling utterly content with his small, perfect family.

“Yeah,” agreed Belle. “He’s such a good kid. Takes after me, obviously.”

“That’s probably a good thing. If he took after me, we’d have to watch him like a hawk. At least he’s learned his lesson now.”

Upstairs, Gideon retrieved the cookies from under his covers and began dunking them into his hot chocolate, already feeling miles better than he had done when they’d arrived at home. It was a good thing that his parents taught by example, because discipline had never been their strong area.


End file.
